Fair game time in junior Aussie Rules: rotations across four quarters
The maths of a fair game, what the AFL’s Junior Rules ask of your bench, rotation patterns by bench size, what to say to the parent who’s been counting, and how to keep the count from the boundary.
Junior Aussie Rules hands every coach two jobs nobody mentions at sign-on.
The stopwatch. Twelve on the ground, kids coming and going through the interchange and a reshuffle at every break mean game time is completely in your hands. With 16 kids and four 12-minute quarters, a fair game is 36 minutes each. Try naming every kid’s minutes from last week. Plenty of parents think they can.
The memory. Every change is one more thing to carry: who’s been on, who’s waited, who’s next, and who’s played where. You hold all of that while you’re also watching the contest and getting the kids ready for the next quarter.
This guide is the system for both. Every table in it is arithmetic you can check yourself.
A fair game in junior footy is a sum: the minutes on the ground, shared by the kids who turned up. The sum is easy. Keeping it while you coach sixteen kids, twelve at a time, with a reshuffle at every break, is the hard part, and nobody on the boundary can see it.
1 The maths of a fair game
Player-minutes are fixed. Twelve on the ground for four 12-minute quarters is 576 player-minutes, however many kids turn up. A fair share is that number divided by the kids who did.
The AFL’s Junior Rules (2024) set the floor: “Every player must play a minimum of 50-75% game time with the controlling body determining the exact % of game time per player”. Your league picks the figure, and a kid who can’t continue isn’t held to it. Here’s what a fair share is in minutes.
fair share = (game minutes × 12 on the ground) ÷ players who turned up. Share of the game = 12 ÷ players who turned up.
| Players at the game | 4 × 12 min (48-min game) | Share of the game | Bench |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | ~44 min | ~92% | 1 |
| 14 | ~41 min | ~86% | 2 |
| 15 | ~38 min | 80% | 3 |
| 16 | 36 min | 75% | 4 |
| 17 | ~34 min | ~71% | 5 |
| 18 | 32 min | ~67% | 6 |
Two things to take from the table
A fair share is the same share for every kid: the one in your row. At 16 players that’s 75%, the top of the 50 to 75% range in the Junior Rules, and every extra kid lowers it. Check your row against your league’s figure. If your league sets the top figure, this row has no slack: every kid needs the full 36. From 17 players, 75% can’t be reached for everyone, so ask your league what it expects.
Fair doesn’t mean equal to the minute, and the bench sets your rhythm. Where your row sits above your league’s figure, a few minutes either way is fine. With 16, four kids are off at any moment and each sits 12 of the 48 minutes: one quarter’s worth, spread across the game.
2 Why memory fails
Nobody sets out to short-change a kid. It happens through three drifts every coach will recognise.
Close-game drift. The contest is tight, the ball’s in your back half, and your three strongest kids haven’t come off since quarter time. It doesn’t need a scoreboard. Over a season the gap is enormous, and invisible, because nobody decided it. It drifted.
Quiet-kid drift. The kid at your elbow asking “can I go on?” goes on. The kid who never asks waits. Every change is another chance to say yes to the one who asked.
Game-day chaos. Two kids arrive late, one can’t continue, kids are running through the interchange area and a parent wants a word mid-change. The plan in your head doesn’t survive game day.
Underneath all three: the quarter-time reshuffle lies to you
The Junior Rules ask for rotation “at least every quarter” through “several positions including the interchange”, so at every break you move kids around. The field looks brand new. The minutes don’t reset: a kid who sat most of the first and third quarters is still short, however fresh the last quarter looks. The count has to carry all four quarters. In Kickd it does: the field and every kid’s minutes go into the next quarter.
3 Rotation patterns that work
One rule beats every clever pattern:
On a fixed rhythm, swap the longest-on players for the longest-off players.
Here it is by bench size, on 4 × 12 with 12 on the ground. The minutes are only a guide: set whatever rotation time suits your team, and use the quarter breaks as free checkpoints. The swap count is your SUBS PER ROTATION setting.
| Bench | The pattern | How it lands |
|---|---|---|
| 2 (14 players) | Swap both each rotation, longest-on off. | Each kid sits about 7 minutes across the game, in spells of one rotation. |
| 3 (15) | Swap all three each rotation. | About 10 minutes off each across the game, in spells of one rotation. |
| 4 (16) | Swap two each rotation, longest-on off. | Each kid sits 12 of the 48 minutes, in spells of two rotations. |
| 6 (18) | Swap three each rotation, so the bench works as two waves. | Each kid sits 16 minutes, a third of the game, in spells of two rotations. |
Positions, not just minutes
Minutes are only half the job: the Junior Rules want kids getting a go in “several positions”. Move them at quarter time with Edit Q2 Lineup, or tap two players on the oval to swap them. Tag a player Forward, Mid or Back on the TEAM tab and the alarm suggests subs within that line first. Leave the tags off and each kid takes whichever spot is being vacated, so moving kids through every line stays your call.
Three habits that guarantee an unfair spread
“My best kids start every quarter.” Feels like good coaching. But they bank the most minutes, the bench plays catch-up all game, and when the contest gets tight the catch-up never comes. That’s close-game drift with a plan.
“She’s happy on the bench.” Quiet kids don’t stay off because they’re happy. They stay off because nobody asked. That’s quiet-kid drift with a reason attached.
“I’ll sort the minutes out at three-quarter time.” By then there are 12 minutes left to give. In the 16-player game, a kid on 12 can play all of them and still finish on 24, two-thirds of a fair share. That’s the reshuffle lie, cashed in at the last break.
4 The parent who’s been counting comes over at three-quarter time
Kickd shows you Jack’s 24; the 27 is yours, three quarters of his 36 (illustrative, on the 16-player game). Jack’s only three behind, so one quarter fixes it; the kid on 12 in section 3 can’t be fixed that late. A number, not an opinion, keeps a parent onside all season. Without a system you’re the stopwatch, the memory and the referee of fairness, while watching the contest and running the interchange. With one, auto-fill picks the starting twelve, fewest season minutes first; an alarm goes off at the rotation time you set with the swaps matched; a sub is two taps; every kid’s minutes are live, the most-played in amber; and when you end the game the Fairness % is on the record.
5 The season view
A single game will never be perfectly even. Kids arrive late, someone can’t continue, a quarter gets away from you. What matters is the season.
Kickd gives every junior match (U8 to U12) a Fairness %: the least-used player’s minutes as a percentage of the most-used player’s. Players who genuinely couldn’t take the field that day are excluded, so a short-handed week doesn’t poison the number. It isn’t the Junior Rules’ percentage, which is each kid’s share of the game. Your stats screen shows the season average and a game-by-game chart.
Two ways coaches actually use it
Proactively, in the team chat. “Fairness this week: 88%.” One line, posted before anyone asks, and the counting parent has their answer.
As the season’s honesty check. If the chart dips three weeks running, that’s close-game drift showing up in the data before it shows up as a phone call.
6 What this takes on game day
Everything above runs off one habit: tap the subs as they happen, or tap Rotate Now when the alarm’s up. The app does the rest, live:
- Fair-share lineup before the game: auto-fill puts the kids with the fewest season minutes on first, placed by line if you’ve tagged them.
- Rotation alarm at your rotation time, swaps already matched, SUBS PER ROTATION capping how many change at once. It’s the ROTATION ALERTS row on the TEAM tab: on for new teams; an older team may need to switch it on.
- Live minutes on every kid, on the oval and on the bench, amber on the ones who’ve had the most.
- The field carries into the next quarter, minutes and all. Edit Q2, Q3 or Q4 Lineup on the break card moves kids around.
- A kid who can’t continue is a long-press and a confirm. Their spot frees up and you tap a bench player into it.
- The clock keeps going in your pocket, with a live timer on the lock screen.
- Fairness % after every game and the season chart on your stats screen, for U8 to U12.
Run it on your team at your next game
Kickd is built for Aussie Rules, U8 to Opens, with a real oval and 9, 12, 15, 16 or 18 on the ground. Live minutes and rotation alarms are on for every new team out of the box, and every junior match (U8 to U12) gets a Fairness %. From U13 you get the alarm and every player’s minutes without the Fairness %. No hardware, nothing to charge. Coaches hold the pass; parents join free with a code.
- Set up your team in ten minutes: players, age group and team size.
- Run the built-in Practice Game once on the couch. It runs ten times faster and nothing is saved.
- Run your next real game with it and, for a junior team, post your Fairness % in the team chat.
Your first three matches are free, no card needed. After that, a Team Pass covers everything in this guide for the whole team, for the season. Coaching a senior or rep side? Team Stats adds the full stat set on top (a U10 to U12 rep side switches on EXTENDED STATS): Inside 50s for both teams with your scoring rate per entry, centre clearances, and per-player marks, kicks, handballs, possessions, tackles, intercepts, turnovers, goal assists and frees against, all season. Both include Kickd Callout: say “rotate now” or “rotate now” and it’s logged. Try it on your phone mic at training; on game day a Bluetooth headset with a boom mic keeps it hands free.
The Aussie Rules Game Day Playbook is the designed, printable version of this guide. Pricing is on the pricing page.
Quotes are from the AFL’s Junior Rules Program Handbook (May 2024). Kickd is independent of the AFL and works beside your league’s own app, never in place of the team sheet.